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Pittsburg State University Physics Department
Fall 2014 www.pittstate.edu/phys
uark
Editor’s note–
I want to apologize for the
delay in publication. The
faculty, students and staff of
the Physics Department at
Pittsburg State University
are very appreciative of
our alumni and readers.
We are proud to announce
that we now have a presence
on Facebook and hope you
look us up to read about the
latest happenings.
We enjoy hearing from
you, too! If you are not on
Facebook, please mail your
news to the PSU Physics
Department or email me,
dkuehn@pittstate.edu
Loss of Dr. Alexander Konopelko
Since our last newsletter, the Physics Department suffered the tragic loss of our
colleague, Assistant Professor Alexander Konopelko, due
to injuries sustained in an automobile accident on August
10, 2012 near the Missouri border just east of Pittsburg.
Alex had been driving with his wife, Tatiana, and
daughter, Nicole-Marie, who were also seriously injured
in the crash but have since recovered.
Prof. Konopelko joined the Physics faculty in 2008
after spending three years as a research associate at
Purdue University. Before that, he had a similar position
in Germany after earning his Ph.D. in physics from Tomsk
State University of Technology in Tomsk, Russia, in 1990.
Although just 50 years of age, Alex had accumulated an
enviable list of accomplishments in high energy cosmic
ray research and was widely respected for his involvement
Alexander Konopelko
with students, many of whom were sponsored to visit
research sites in Heidelberg, Germany.
In the year before his death, Alex and his research team were awarded a $140,000
grant from NASA to study black holes. Their goal was to catch one in a flaring state,
which he says would ultimately help explain the evolution of the universe. He traced
his fascination with outer space to movies and shows about space, including such
classics as Star Trek, which led to this latest area of study focused on black holes.
His other connections with NASA would certainly have helped with that endeavor,
along with his work to recruit students to the program. At the time of his passing, he
was actively involved in the Fermi Gamma Ray Telescope, the VERITAS program
(Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System) in Arizona, HESS (High
Energy Stereoscopic System), and the HEGRA atmospheric Cerenkov telescope in
Germany.
Crediting his team of students, faculty and staff with helping to secure the new
(continued on pg. 2)
Konopelko (from pg. 1)
grant, he was certainly headed in the
right direction when it comes to showing
potential students what they can achieve
at PSU. His untimely accident ended all
the promise of this work. Pittsburg State
University President Steve Scott issued
the following statement upon learning
of his death: “Alex had an incredible
passion for research and for instructing
students. My thoughts and prayers go out
to his family and to all those involved in
this tragic accident. Our Gorilla family
is in mourning today, and we pray for a
speedy recovery for his wife, Tatiana,
and his daughter, Nicole.”
Professor of Physics Tim Bolton at
Kansas State University summed up the
impact of this event by stating, “This is a
terrible loss for the entire Kansas physics
community.”
Alex was a loving and devoted
husband to his wife and took great joy in
his two daughters, Valentina Ostric, who
lives with her husband, Denis, and son,
Adrian, in Germany and Nicole-Marie.
He especially enjoyed playing tennis with
Nicole and spending time outdoors with
their dog. He will be sorely missed by his
colleagues, family, friends, and everyone
who knew him. The family has suggested
memorials to the Dr. Alexander
Konopelko Memorial Scholarship
to benefit Pittsburg State University
students majoring in Physics. These may
be sent to the PSU Foundation, P.O. Box
4005, Pittsburg, KS 66762.
Faculty Updates
Dr. Serif Uran has been teaching in the
PSU physics department for nine years.
He teaches introductory to master’s
level physics classes. His new advance
topics course, PHYS 743 Solid State
Electronics became a yearly course taken
both by Physics and Technology majors.
In that course students learn about logic
gates, integrated circuits and LabView
programming.
Along with students, Dr. Uran has
attended several different conferences
such as Zone 12 meeting of SPS at
University of Missouri, Kansas City,
in April 2013; the Midwest Solid State
Physics conference at University of
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PITT STATE Fall 2014
Kansas, Lawrence, in September; the
IDeA Network of Biomedical Research
Excellence (INBRE) conference at
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, in
October; and the PSU 2013 Research
Colloquium in April.
A number of grant proposals submitted
to U.S. Civilian Research & Development
Foundation (CRDF) under the 2013 Young
Scholars Support Program (YSSP) in
Armenia have been reviewed by Dr. Uran.
He also served as a thesis committee
member for three graduate students.
His advisee, Shahid Iqbal, finished his
master’s degree at the end of spring 2013
and got accepted to the physics Ph.D.
program at Western Michigan University.
PSU Society of Physics Students
(SPS) has been advised by Dr. Uran
since 2004. The SPS is a national and
academic student organization which
promotes physics and physics education.
The PSU chapter of the SPS is in Zone
12, which includes Kansas, Oklahoma
and Missouri. Science education via
student organizations such as SPS is an
important part of university experience.
SPS students currently do research on
graphene, and holography.
In addition, Dr. Uran served on
Tobacco Task Force on campus, and
PSU - Kansas National Education
Association (KNEA) as parliamentarian.
He volunteers for student recruitment
events such as Rumble in the Jungle and
Junior Jungle Day, Pittsburg library book
sales and Sunrise rotary club sponsored
events. He also spent three weeks in
Turkey last summer before coming back
to teach a summer course in July.
Dr. Chuck Blatchley has continued
to work with gamma spectroscopy,
guiding two graduate students in work
with the High Purity Germanium
(HPGe) and NaI(Tl) detectors. This
work had previously been the basis of
grant proposals in collaboration with
the astrobiology group at KU. A third
student is now making tomographic
autoradiographic images using low level
radioactive sources and single plate
Polaroid film.
Dr. Blatchley is also still an Adjunct
Professor at the University of Nebraska
Medical Center in Omaha in the
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and
Rehabilitation, where he has continued his
collaboration with Professors Fereydoon
Namavar and Hani Haider at the Scott
Technology Center at UNMC, developing
and testing new wear resistant materials
for biomedical implants, including
nanostructures produced by ion beam
assisted deposition. In conjunction with
this work, he completed a chapter on
nanomaterial safety in biomedical devices
in the book, “Nanotechnology Safety
Education,” R. Asmatulu, Ed., which was
published by Elsevier last Spring.
As coordinator for the Department’s
teacher education efforts, Dr. Blatchley
serves on the Secondary Education
Coordinating Council and the Council
for Teacher Education. In conjunction
with those committees he volunteers for
the Kansas Board of Education Program
Review team and the State’s Physics
Licensure Committee to set standards
for teachers in Kansas. He also regularly
assists the College of Education in their
“Explorations” interviews with teacher
candidates and scholarship selections,
and helped interview candidates for
the military service academies for
Congresswoman Jenkins.
Kyla Scarborough MS (PSU 2005)
Ms. Kyla Scarborough earned her
master’s degree in physics in 2005 and
has been teaching in the PSU Physics
department since that time. This fall
she is teaching Descriptive Astronomy,
Physical Science, and supervising the
Astronomy labs. She supervises the
L. Russell Kelce Planetarium, which
presents programs to a few thousand
students annually, and has been training
a student employee to assist with
planetarium programs. Kyla organized
the Physics Frolics and Earth & Space
Sciences portions of Science Day 2014.
Her research interests have included wear
testing of biomedical implants and engine
parts and also vertical structure modeling
of Saturn’s upper atmosphere from
narrowband near-infrared imaging.
Dr. Benjamin O. Tayo is an assistant
Professor of physics at Pittsburg State
University (PSU) since August, 2013.
He received the B.Sc. (Hons.) in physics
and computer science from University
of Buea, Buea, Cameroon, in 2004,
the M.Sc. degree (with distinction) in
theoretical condensed matter physics from
the University of Trieste, Trieste, Italy,
in 2007, and received the Ph.D. degree
in physics from Lehigh University,
Bethlehem, Pa., USA, in 2012.
Before joining PSU, he was a visiting
research scientist/postdoctoral fellow at
the department of computer/electrical
engineering at Lehigh University.
He was also a lecturer of physics at
Lehigh Carbon Community College
and an instructor of physics at Lehigh
University. His current research interests
involve theoretical/computational aspects
of the physics of two-dimensional atomic
crystals and their heterostructures for
applications in nanoscale electronics. He
applies quantum mechanics and manybody physics to study the electronic and
optical properties of these materials,
paying particular attention to material
properties that could make them suitable
for use in novel electronics, for instance
engineering the band gap of graphene
and graphene based heterostructures
could lead to the possibility of novel
low-dimensional graphene-based
semiconductors for applications in low
power nanoscale electronics. Dr. Tayo
taught the following courses in fall 2012:
Quantum Mechanics (graduate level),
College Physics Laboratory, and Physical
Science (general education course). In
spring 2014, he taught the following
courses: Nanoscale Physics, Solid State
Physics and College Physics Laboratory.
Dr. David Kuehn received his Ph.D.
in astronomy from New Mexico State
University in 1990. Since our last
newsletter, Dean Kunkel appointed
Dr. Kuehn as interim chairperson of the
Physics Department in Fall 2013. As
chairperson, Dr. Kuehn had to complete
and submit the Physics Department
bachelor’s and master’s degree program
review documents; arrange and
administer an external reviewer to tour
and review the department’s programs,
and present the results of the review to
the university program review board. At
the time of this writing, the department
has not yet received the findings of
the committee, but the faculty of the
department are confident that both the
bachelor’s and master’s degree programs
will be retained by the university.
Since the untimely death of Dr.
Konopelko in August 2012, Dr. Kuehn
began teaching the astrophysics courses,
including a new preparation PHYS
775 High-Energy Astrophysics. In that
course, Dr. Kuehn taught about stellar
evolution with an emphasis on stellar
end states including supernovae, neutron
stars and black holes. In addition, he
taught observational and theoretical
foundations of active galactic nuclei and
gamma ray bursts. Dr. Kuehn completed
writing the computer control code for
the acousto-optic tunable filter point
spectrometer that was being developed
jointly by colleagues Dr. Nancy
Chanover and Dr. David Voelz at New
Mexico State University and Dr. David
Glenar at Goddard Space Flight Center.
The instrument was transported to GSFC
for testing and integration with a timeof-flight mass spectrometer. A paper was
recently published (June 2013) about
the instrument in Optical Engineering
entitled “Infrared acousto-optic tunable
filter point spectrometer for detection
of organics on mineral surfaces.” The
instrument was designed to be part of a
Mars rover mission proposal and funding
for the final construction is pending.
Congratulations to
PSU Physics Graduates
2012
John Barksdale (BS in Physics)
Dongqing Huang (BS in Physics)
Jonathon Mayfield (BS in Physics)
Elliott Rowland (MS in Physics)
Nathaniel Smith (MS in Physics
and Mathematics)
Qiang Xiong (MS in Physics)
2013
David Heins (BS in Physics)
Tyler Shallenburger (BS in Physics Education)
Tyler Smith (BS in Physics)
Nish DeSilva (MS in Physics)
Shahid Iqbal (MS in Physics)
Brenden Smith (MS in Physics)
2014 (Spring)
Luke Callanan (BS in Physics)
Andrew Ferrel (BS in Physics)
Aaron Flood (BS in Physics)
Cody Parden (BS in Physics)
Josh Cochran (MS in Physics)
Yusra Zabarmawi (MS in Physics)
A big THANK YOU!
to all of our dedicated
and generous donors.
Cheryl L. Adams
Dr. and Mrs. Bob J. Backes
Rayma J. Bishir
Sherry A. Blatchley
Evan D. Capron
Jessica B. Clements
Michael L. Cobb
Megan M. Corrigan
Thomas Bruce Daniel
James W. Dearlove
Paul T. Dixon
Rosel Easom
John F. Flater
William G. Forrest
Stan H. Grigsby
Scott W. Grisolano
James K. Haldeman
Timothy R. Harris
David K. Hays
Chuck L. Hosman
Ronald F. Kendall
Mr. Htet Aung Khant & Theingi Thway
Mike D. Knopp
Todd A. Koon
Helen F. Kriegsman
Merry C. Lance
Dr. George E. Lemaster
Robert W. McGee
Mr. & Mrs. Robert C. Milleman, Jr.
Tamara N. Nagel
Lawrence P. Nelson
Tari D O'Brien
Richard E. Pearson
Michael J. Peternell
Brian W. Pinamonti
Frank S. Pistotnik
Charles R. Poznich
Daniel J. Redmond
Elie Riachi
Roy G. Saffold
Nazar A. Saman
Herbert C. Schade
Dan Scifers
Michael D. Shaw
Marion E. Sloan
Dr. Wallace W. & Dr. Mary Fern Souder
Dr. & Mrs. Dale E. Starchman
Darrel A. Thomas
Dr. & Mrs. Jim E. Thomas, Jr.
Robert J. Thomas
David Umphenour
Edward L. Van Hoorebeke
PITT STATE Fall 2014
3
Society of Physics
Students (SPS) Activities
• PSU-SPS elected new officers at the
start of the school year, Merab Basiliaia
became the president and Chris Ward
became the vice president. Michael
Giffin was elected to be the secretary and
treasurer of the club.
Pittsburg State University
Physics Department
1701 S. Broadway
Pittsburg, KS 66762-7556
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PITT STATE
• The chapter received “Notable Chapter
Award” from the American Institute
of Physics in late November. Chapter
recognition was determined by a careful
review of chapter reports. Reviewers
gauge how well the report conveys the
chapter’s participation in interactions and
activities that center around the mission
statement for SPS. The criteria include
the chapter’s involvement in local, zone
and national SPS meetings and other
professional meetings, participation
in SPS programs, outreach efforts to
the grades K-12 or the general public,
participation in community service,
contributions to student recruitment and
retention participation in social events,
and interactions with the department’s
alumni.
• Chapter members presented their
research activities to PSU Student
Organization Committee and was able
to secure about $400 funding for their
research and travel. They also bought and
put together their own computer for SPS
research and activities.
• SPS students helped physics department
in the Rumble in the Jungle Event: In
Rumble in the Jungle, high school seniors
and their parents were invited to visit
Pittsburg State University where learn
about different degree programs. This is a
great opportunity for our SPS chapter to find new students who might be interested in
physics.
• PSU-SPS chapter attended the annual SPS Zone 12 meeting at University of
Missouri at Kansas City, Mo. SPS members Amy Beggs and Chris Ward presented
their research titled “MBBA and 5CB Liquid Crystal Phase Transitions” at the zone
meeting and won the first place award, which included a hand-made coin trophy
(bottom right). The coins in the trophy were shrunk using high magnetic field.
Dr. Serif Uran,
Amy Beggs,
Merab Basiliaia,
Robert Gilmore
and Chris Ward
at the annual SPS
Zone 12 meeting
at University of
Missouri at Kansas
City, Mo.
Chris and Amy
presenting
their research
at UMKC.
First place
award, SPS
Zone 12.